Italian spaghetti prepared from scratch. Fresh tossed salad. Bread and butter, iced tea and cherry sundaes with chocolate topping for dessert.
Every Wednesday, a meal similar to this is waiting for anyone who needs one at the Elgin Soup Kettle at the First Congregational Church in Elgin.
You might think you were attending a chamber of commerce luncheon or a family-style wedding reception. The 11 numbered tables are set for eight. A personal server offers seconds. Everywhere there are smiling and happy faces.
The Soup Kettle rotates among seven Elgin churches and is committed to providing at least one square meal a day to the area’s needy.
“We’re unique here,” said Carl Flaks, 59, a resident of Elgin and a social studies teacher at Schaumburg High School. “Most kitchens offer cafeteria-style eating. We feel that’s a little impersonal. We serve family style, and each volunteer is assigned to serve a table so we can give them a personal touch.”
Flaks — along with a core of 14 church volunteers — heads up the Soup Kettle program at the First Congregational Church. It is a part of the Elgin Cooperative Ministry, which depends on the generosity of the community to serve those in need.
Flaks dedicates at least 10 hours a week to the Elgin Soup Kettle. “There is no rivalry among the seven churches,” he said. “We all pull together to make it a viable program for the whole community. All these churches fill a need, and at the First Congregational, we just try to take it a step further and add something a little extra to the dinners.
“We’re not just slopping food on a plate. We’re serving dinner with dignity,” Flaks said. “We get face-to-face contact here. It’s like going home to mom’s for dinner.”
The Soup Kettle’s reputation has spread far and wide. Diners line up a half-hour before the 5:30 p.m. opening Wednesdays in the basement of the church.
According to Flaks, dinner guests are a varied group, reaching across class and ethnic boundaries. Some are jobless and homeless. Many are working poor, struggling with the minimum wage and the demands of a family.
Many of the guests are single men, but all facets of the community are represented. There are children, single parents and senior citizens. Everyone is welcome.
“When I first started volunteering nine years ago, our dinner guests were sick people,” said Barb Schmidt, 61, of Elgin. “They had diseases, and they were sad and angry folks. Over time, we all made a connection, and it grew into a family. We’re blessed for it too.
“There’s a hidden, intangible bonus: Relationships. These people are no longer strangers to us. We see them in the stores; we see them on the street; we’ve become neighbors.”
The Soup Kettle was established eight years ago by the Elgin Cooperative Ministry as an interfaith program to benefit the growing needy population. The Kettle is funded at each individual church and operated by volunteers, with the help of occasional charitable donations.
Volunteers try to plan and prepare enough to feed 80 to 100 people each week.
Over the summer, the number of diners dropped by about 5 percent, according to Rev. Don Schmidt of the First Congregational Church. But he does not expect the trend to continue. “Through the summer, more people are working, outside work around the community opens up,” Schmidt said. “But with winter, those jobs dry up again until spring, so a lot of the people are back because they really need the assistance.”
On this night, nearly all the chairs are occupied (Flaks’ spaghetti has a reputation of its own). The servers are outgoing and warm; they simply like what they’re doing.
“Carl makes great food,” said server Janet Ellsworth, 28, of Elgin. “The first time I came here nearly four years ago, I didn’t really know what to expect. (But) I wasn’t embarrassed. I like to help people; it does something for them and for me.”
At 5:31, diners and volunteers sing grace together. As everyone settles into their plates of pasta, a mother with three small children pours orange juice in their glasses. There’s plenty for everyone.
Flaks loves his job as chief cook and procurer of the pantry supplies. He plans and, with the aid of volunteers, cooks all the dinners from scratch. His pride and joy are homemade soups.
“When it starts to get chilly, I mix up huge, huge pots of soup,” he said. “People really love it with bread. We sit around at the tables and talk and warm our stomachs. It’s wonderful.”
The menu at the Soup Kettle is the only thing that isn’t a Wednesday night constant. It could be pheasant one evening — a local hunting club provides the birds — or roast beef or turkey the next week. There are usually doughnuts and always cookies. There’s plenty of bread and butter to go along with Carl’s soup, as well as milk, iced tea or coffee. And if they are available, U.S. government surplus berries on ice cream for dessert.
“A lot of these people make the minimum wage. Just paying your bills and feeding a family on that can be difficult,” said volunteer Mary Hewitt, 47, of Elgin. “There’s one lady having dinner here tonight with her children. She used to volunteer with us, and now she’s going to school so she can get a better job and help her family and others. It’s the small-town ideal at work here. Helping one another.”
Working with a network of contacts linking churches, restaurants, supermarkets and government agencies, Flaks scours his Rolodex daily searching out food to keep the Soup Kettle cooking.
“There’s a lot of food out there that people are not eating,” he said. “And it’s going to waste. You have to know where to look, who to ask, what to trade. The cherries on tonight’s dessert are government surplus; we also have blueberries for next week.”
According to Schmidt, Flaks has been associated with the Soup Kettle since the program began. “He’s dedicated to the ideal,” Schmidt said. “I’ve heard Carl say it a hundred times, he does it because he’s part of a church that cares about people, and he cares about people.”
Flaks took command of the Kettle project at First Congregational four years ago. “I’ve been blessed with a good family and a good home,” Flaks said. “I’m just trying to put a little of that back into the community, to help someone else.”
Wayne Harz, 58, of Elgin stops by First Congregational regularly for dinner. “This is good for people who need the boost,” Harz said. “It gets them well fed and ready to go out and work, and it keeps their lives steady.”
Ben Banwart, 17, an Elgin resident and a senior at Elgin High School, started volunteering at the Soup Kettle through his confirmation class at the church; now he serves tables on Wednesday for the experience it gives him. Students from Elgin and Larkin High Schools also can gain credits for volunteering at the Soup Kettle. As part of the curriculum, students at the two schools are required to complete 20 hours of “service learning” before graduation.
“It’s a challenge every week,” Banwart said. “You’re meeting new people. The Kettle introduces you to what goes on in the community. It shows that community service does make a difference; it really is fun to help someone. It makes me more appreciative of what I have. It helps to teach young people that it’s important to have a social responsibility.”
The Soup Kettle is sponsored by religious organizations, but at First Congregational the only prayer is grace.
“We don’t have a religious `pitch.’ We just want people to feel at home for a little while,” said volunteer and church member Leonard Bye, 71, of Elgin. “It’s a thing we can do together. We have the best kitchen here. Our guests say we put out the best meal in the week.”
Dave, 30, is a regular guest at the Kettle on Wednesday evening. “It helps a lot of people,” he said. “They can come here and take a little time. They get a breather, a little time when they’re not under pressure. Here, at the Soup Kettle, they can eat and be warm in the winter. I know I appreciate it.
“Thank you good people, thank you very much.”
WHERE MEALS ARE SERVED
There’s a warm dinner available every night of the week in Elgin, thanks to the Elgin Cooperative Ministry’s Soup Kettle program. Here is the schedule:
Monday: First United Methodist Church, 216 E. Highland Ave., 847-741-0038. Hours: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday: Faith United Methodist Church, 19 Center St., 847-742-1151. Hours: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday: First Congregational Church of Elgin, 256 E. Chicago St., 847-741-4045. Hours 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Thursday: Church of the Redeemer Episcopal Church, 40 Center St., 847-742-2428. Hours 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Friday: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 357 Division St., 847-742-2025. Hours: 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Saturday: Church of the Brethren Highland Avenue Church, 783 W. Highland Ave., 847-741-5124. Hours: Begins at 5:30 p.m. for about two hours.
Sunday: Templo Calvario Iglesia, 270 E. Chicago St., 847-888-8558. Hours: Begins at 3 p.m. for about two hours.
